Gaming F2P FPS Tribes Ascend Released

[Rayout]

Tribes: Ascend is now open to the public! For those of you not familiar with the Starsiege: Tribes games, you should check it out just to see how far and beyond their times the game design was (the first game was released in 1998). The skill ceiling on this game is tremendous.

There are several aspects that make this game so skill based:

• There are different classes with different weapon and grenade loadouts and "Packs" which offer different bonuses ranging from faster health regeneration, shielding, stealth, and more. Weapons include the classic spinfusor as well as the fusion mortar on the heavy artillery Juggernaut class.
• All classes have jet packs. This is a first person shooter with a z-axis. Running out of energy in the middle of nowhere means you are a sitting duck.
• The classic Tribes weapon of choice is the spinfusor - a slow moving, singleshot, explosive disc. A real master can hit you in mid air. A newbie will have trouble hitting someone walking on the ground.
• Projectile explosives inherit some of your movement speed (50%). This means that mastering the game is going to take time as the amount you need to lead your target needs to be based off your speed relative to your opponents. This takes time to develop.
• Skiing - use your jetpacks to get up a mountain and "ski" down to build speed. This game is not about running, its about building speed and keeping mobile. Play the tutorial before starting or you will get splattered.
• Various modes of play from death match, to capture the flag to capture and hold. Capture the flag has the bonus of base defense and offense. Destroying the enemy generator means that their defenses and detection systems are disabled allowing for easy flag captures. Add in the high speed chasing and flag captures and you have a really fun mix

The game is free to play - when you start you have 3 classes unlocked (Pathfinder, Soldier and Juggernaut). All the other classes and additional equipment can be unlocked by playing and earning experience. Note that you get a 50% experience bonus once you make your first real money transaction (lowest amount you can pay is $10). For me it was well worth it to chip in $10 for the developers who are keeping this series of games going. The Soldier is probably one of the better classes to start off with. He has an assault rifle that performs similar to the majority of other FPS weapons without the relative velocity mechanic. He also has an explosive weapon with the largest blast radius (though also the least damage and an arcing trajectory that is harder to use). Also worth playing is the Juggernaut as it has the most health but also the least energy and reduced energy regenation for jetpack meaning he can be very vulnerable though he has the ability to 1-shot light and medium armor classes with his grenades and mortar).

If you are interested in playing, check it out at the following link.. Full disclosure: this is a referral link (signing up from it grants my account some bonus experience used to unlock upgrades/classes but also grants you an experience bonus at level 6): https://account.hirezstudios.com/tribesascend/?referral=2038375&utm_campaign=email

You can sign up without giving me referral credit here: https://account.hirezstudios.com/tribesascend/

 

[Skelletonike]

I played this during cbt, it's not my cup of tea, I'm more of an rpg gamer and not many FPS interest me, unless they have TPS view. The game did seem very nice tho, graphics and stuff, for fans of the genre it's certainly a great game.

 

[Deleted User]

Its a great skill based game, I highly recommend if you want a different kind of shooter.

 

[Rayout]

I played this during cbt, it's not my cup of tea, I'm more of an rpg gamer and not many FPS interest me, unless they have TPS view. The game did seem very nice tho, graphics and stuff, for fans of the genre it's certainly a great game.

Press "X" to go into TPS view

 

[FAST6191]

I might be interested and I am looking for something to test my card out and an FPS to play although I have been tempting RSI of late so probably should cut back on the PC time.

I can not see anything and it looks like it does not but does this require anything along the lines of WildTangent or steam installed?

 

[Fudge]

I might be interested and I am looking for something to test my card out and an FPS to play although I have been tempting RSI of late so probably should cut back on the PC time.

I can not see anything and it looks like it does not but does this require anything along the lines of WildTangent or steam installed?

It's an awesome game, I love it. No third-party clients are required, although I wish there was Steam support.

 

[qlum]

if someone is interested in the game there are some unlock codes for a gun here: http://destructoid.com/elephant/redeem_code.phtml
I personally am not very fond of this game but if it makes anyone happy there are only 10k codes so they may run out at some point.